Adapting the Navigation Interface of Smart Watches to User Movements

ABSTRACT

The high mobility of smart watches can easily impair interaction performance, and many applications are squeezed into an extremely tiny screen, which causes disorientations. Therefore, this study examines the extent of performance impairment caused by user movements and proposes navigation aids to alleviate the impairment. An experiment was conducted among 28 college students to investigate the influence of user movements and navigation aids on users’ performance and subjective feedback. The results indicate that the performance of using smart watches in walking conditions is comparable to that in sitting conditions. However, the use of smart watches while running reduces the success rates of operating, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and flow experience, and it increases subjective cognitive workload. To improve user experience, the effectiveness of providing navigation aids for smart watches is confirmed. Using static navigation aids while sitting and walking and using animated navigation aids while moving can significantly improve users’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness and decrease cognitive workload. Based on these results, guidelines for tailoring the interface design of smart watches to user movements through navigation aids are proposed.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants nos. 71401018 and 71661167006) and Chongqing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (cstc2016jcyjA0406).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fan Mo

Fan Mo (Chongqing University; [email protected]) has been registered as a full-time student in the Master’s degree program in the department of Industrial Engineering (branch of human–computer interaction) at Chongqing University. His research focuses on acceptance and usability of mobile devices and smart watches.

Jia Zhou

Jia Zhou (Chongqing University; [email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Chongqing University and a visiting research scholar at Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on acceptance and usability of mobile devices for older adults.

Shuping Yi

Shuping Yi (Chongqing University [email protected]) Shuping Yi is a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Chongqing University, and he is Chairman of Chongqing University Press. His research focuses on intelligent manufacturing, theory and technical system of industrial engineering, and enterprise informatization.